


Into Shadows, Part 8

by skyblue_reverie



Series: Into Shadows [8]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 00:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20714993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyblue_reverie/pseuds/skyblue_reverie
Summary: My take on Into Darkness, less dark and with 1000% more Pike and McCoy.This part: The Enterprise, during and after the away team's attempted takeover of the U.S.S. Vengeance.The journey was a nightmare, as walls turned into floors turned into ceilings.  They clung to any secure hold they could as they stumbled and fell and slid, and Chris had to watch members of his crew fall, screaming, to their deaths.  It gutted him, each and every soul lost, but he couldn’t think about that now.  If he didn’t succeed, they wouldalldie.





	Into Shadows, Part 8

**Author's Note:**

> Nearly there! Probably one or two more parts before this is all wrapped up. Comments and kudos much appreciated, always.

Pike sat motionless in the captain’s chair, waiting. This was the worst part of the job. Their sensors were down; they had no way of knowing what was happening on the hulking black ship on the viewscreen. He wasn’t a religious man, but whoever had said that there’s no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole had gotten it right, and he found himself muttering a prayer to any deity who might possibly be listening.

The torpedoes were ready, at least, Khan’s crew in their cryotubes safely stowed in a storage bay far from the missiles themselves, which were back in their tubes. So now all that was left was the waiting. If Khan didn’t betray them, or even if he did, if Jim prevailed over him, and managed to defeat Admiral Marcus and his crew, then he might not need the leverage of those torpedoes. But he didn’t believe in being unprepared and he’d prepped for every contingency as much as he could, given all the variables.

Then the viewscreen flickered to life and Jim’s face filled it, head tilted back strangely, and a moment later Khan appeared too, holding a phaser to the back of Jim’s neck, his other hand on Jim’s shoulder. Khan’s eyes were wild and he looked more than a little insane. Chris’s gut clenched. Things had obviously not gone according to plan.

“I’m going to make this very simple for you,” Khan said. “Your crew for my crew.”

“You betrayed us,” Chris said. He was honestly a little surprised, though he didn’t let it didn’t bleed through into his voice. He knew Khan was dangerous but had thought somewhere deep down that he’d keep the bargain they’d made.

“No, _you_ betrayed _me_,” Khan said coldly. “Your first officer, here, had the Vulcan shoot me as soon as we’d dealt with Marcus’s crew. Too bad a phaser’s stun setting doesn’t work on me. We had a deal, but you broke it. _Kirk_ broke it. So now we’re going to play by _my_ rules.”

Shit. _Damn_ Jim for going off-script and putting them in this situation, violating the deal Chris had authorized him to broker with Khan. He loved the kid like a son, but his recklessness, his insistence that every situation could end in an unqualified win -- trying to pull off a neat tidy solution to the situation with Marcus and the situation with Khan -- might end up killing all of them.

“Chris, don’t – “ Jim began, his eyes guilty. He knew he’d fucked up. Khan just struck him a vicious blow on the back of the head and Jim went down like a sack of potatoes.

“Captain, give me my crew,” Khan said.

“And what will you do when you get them?” 

“Continue the work we were doing before we were banished,” Khan replied.

“What work is that?”

“Leading the world – the galaxy – to peace.”

“_Pax Romana_, no doubt,” Chris said dryly. “Peace through slaughter and tyranny.”

Khan just smirked, which was answer enough. “Shall I destroy the Enterprise, Captain Pike?” he asked. “Or will you give me what I want?”

“We have no transporter capabilities,” Chris said, as if stalling. Time to implement the torpedo contingency. He had to put up enough of a show of reluctance to lull Khan into complacency.

“Fortunately, mine are perfectly functional. Drop your shields.”

“If I do, I have no guarantee that you won’t destroy the Enterprise.” He added just a hint of a quaver to his voice – not enough for most to notice, but enough that _Khan_ would notice, and think Chris was genuinely panicked by the situation.

“Well, let’s play this out, then, Captain. Firstly, I will kill your first officer to demonstrate my resolve. Then if yours holds, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew.”

“If you destroy the Enterprise, you destroy your own people as well,” Chris pointed out, as if both he and Khan wouldn’t have thought that through long before he brought it up.

“Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not. I will target your life support systems located behind the aft nacelle. And after every single person aboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people. Now, shall we begin?”

“Lower shields,” Chris said, trying to convey both rage and helplessness in the harshly spoken command. The rage, at least, wasn’t too hard to conjure.

“A wise choice, Captain.” Khan gave a vicious kick to Kirk’s stomach, then moved behind the bridge controls. “I see that your seventy-two torpedoes are still in their tubes. If they are not mine, I will know it.”

“The torpedoes are yours,” Chris said flatly. “You would obviously kill us if you checked and they were dummies. I’m not stupid.”

There was a pause as Khan worked the controls, obviously activating his ship’s transporters. “Thank you, Captain Pike,” he said softly, a twisted kind of joy coming over his features.

“I have fulfilled your terms. Now fulfill mine,” Chris replied.

“Well, it seems apt to return your crew to you, so you can all go down with your ship.” Khan looked triumphant, and Chris heard the alarm klaxons begin to wail as sparkling beams of light surrounded Kirk, Spock, and Carol on the viewscreen.

“Captain, he’s locked phasers on us,” said Sulu. Chris held up a hand in warning – _do nothing_, it said to his bridge crew.

“Torpedoes have been transported away,” came Len’s voice quietly through Chris’s personal communicator. It was what he’d been waiting for.

“Khan.” Chris spoke sharply, decisively, before Khan could end the connection, and Khan jerked his head up, looking at him through slitted eyes. Chris allowed himself the merest hint of a smile. “Those torpedoes are armed, and they will detonate in approximately ten seconds. We still have your crew, in an area shielded from transporter beams, so you can't retrieve them. If you beam the torpedoes back to the Enterprise, you will kill your own crew. You don’t have time to disarm them, so if you don’t leave your ship, you will be killed. I suggest you beam over to the bridge here and surrender. If you beam anywhere else on the Enterprise, or show any aggression, I will order the execution of the members of your crew, one by one until you surrender yourself.” He was bluffing about that last part, but Khan couldn’t be sure of that, couldn’t take the risk.

Khan’s eyes blazed but he had no time to escape Chris’s trap, and he knew it. He let out a wordless roar of anger. Then his fingers raced across the bridge controls and once again the streaks of light that signified a transporter activation showed on the Enterprise’s viewscreen.

“Phasers ready,” Chris barked at his bridge crew. Instantly, a dozen phasers were in hand, including his own, pointed at the cylinder of sparkling light that was forming, which in seconds became the figure of Khan. His eyes were murderous, but held himself motionless.

“Sulu, shields up, then get us away from that ship at full impulse, or as fast as we can go.”

“Aye, sir,” Sulu said, turning to comply.

Chris hit the button to open a shipwide emergency channel. “Crew of the Enterprise, prepare for imminent proximity detonation.”

He watched in satisfaction as a massive explosion tore through the enemy ship, blasting it into a million pieces that would burn up harmlessly in the earth’s atmosphere. Then the detonation shockwave hit the Enterprise, and it shook violently. The lights flickered.

“Sir, the central power grid is failing,” said Sulu.

“Switch to auxiliary power,” Chris ordered. The emergency lights came on, dim and red.

“Auxiliary power is failing too,” responded Sulu. “We’ve only got a few minutes of life support left. And - we’re caught in earth’s gravity.”

“Can you stop us?” Chris asked.

Sulu pressed a few buttons, then slumped back. “I can’t do anything.”

“Is there power for evacuation shuttles to launch?”

Sulu checked a few more readings. “No, Captain. Emergency power at 15% and falling. That’s not enough to launch the shuttles. The Enterprise is going to free-fall into the atmosphere and I can’t even slow us down.” A silence fell over the bridge as they all took this in.

Khan’s voice broke the silence. “You need to get the warp core reactor back online or we all die.” He managed to sound calm, almost bored.

Chris was already hailing Scotty by the time he spoke. “Mr. Scott, what’s the status of the warp core reactor?”

Scotty’s voice was barely audible over the sound of groaning metal and hissing sparks. “We’ve had a hull breach, sir, and I’ve lost most of my people. I cannae repair the core alone.”

At this point, Spock and Kirk came dashing onto the bridge, out of breath. Chris looked at them both out of the corner of his eye, not letting the phaser aimed at Khan waver. They seemed to be fine, only winded. He wondered where Carol was, but that would have to wait.

“Spock, I want you to take the conn. Do what you can from here to stabilize the ship. Kirk, Chekov, you’re with me. And Khan, you’re coming too.” He indicated the bridge exit with a jerk of his head. “You so much as twitch in the wrong direction, and I will end you.”

Khan replied, “Captain, I have repeatedly demonstrated my commitment to the safety of my people. Their lives are in danger, as much as your own crew. Our interests are aligned… for the time being.”

Chris nodded, and the small party headed for engineering. In just moments it became clear that the artificial grav system was going offline and they began to run.

“Gravity systems are failing,” said Khan as they staggered down the corridor. 

“No shit, Sherlock,” snapped Jim.

The journey was a nightmare, as walls turned into floors turned into ceilings. They clung to any secure hold they could as they stumbled and fell and slid, and Chris had to watch members of his crew fall, screaming, to their deaths. It gutted him, each and every soul lost, but he couldn’t think about that now. If he didn’t succeed, they would _all_ die.

Finally they reached Scotty, who was cursing up a storm as he jabbed buttons on the control panel. He looked up as they entered. “Even if we get the warp core back online, sir, we’ve still got to redirect the power,” he said.

“What are you talking about?” Jim asked.

“Someone has to hit the manual override,” Scotty said. “There’s a switch – “

Chekov lit up. “Behind the deflector dish! I’ll flip the switch!” He darted up a nearby set of stairs.

“Kirk, go with him. In case…” Chris didn’t want to finish that sentence, didn’t want to say _in case he doesn’t make it_. “In case he needs backup,” he settled for.

Jim nodded grimly. “I’m on it, sir,” he said, taking off after Chekov.

Chris, Scotty, and Khan waited tensely, clinging to secure handholds as the ship tumbled end-over-end again. Then the voice of the computer blared out at them.

“Core misaligned. Danger.”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” Scotty babbled frantically, back at the control panel.

“What is it?” Chris demanded.

“The housings are misaligned. There’s no way we can redirect the power. The ship’s dead, sir. She’s gone.”

“No she’s not,” said Chris. He motioned to Khan. “Come on.”

Scotty ran after them. “Wait, Captain, if we go in there, we’ll die! The radiation will kill us! Do you hear me? What are you doing?”

Chris started punching the Captain’s emergency override code into the panel at the door to the core’s interior. “I’m unlocking the door.”

“That door is there to stop us from getting irradiated! We’d be dead before we made the climb!”

“I know,” Chris said. “We’re not going in.” He turned to Khan. “You are.”

Khan raised an eyebrow. “And why should I do that?”

Chris looked into his eyes. “I don’t have the physical strength to do it. Until yesterday, I was walking with a cane, for Christ’s sake. And I won’t order Scotty to do it. Not when I can order you to do it instead. You’re the strongest of us, you have the best chance of success, and of survival. I know I don’t need to remind you that your crew is going to die if that warp core housing doesn’t get realigned.”

Khan met his gaze, something cold and calculating behind those blue eyes. Finally he nodded, once. Then he opened the door and entered the core compartment.

He was quickly out of sight, ducking into a Jeffries tube, and Scotty ran back to the main engineering control room. Pike went to the nearest communications panel. “Medical, this is the captain. Are you there?”

Len’s voice came through the speaker, gruff and reassuring. “McCoy here, Captain.”

Chris gave himself a split second to feel his relief and gratitude that Leonard was all right. Then he pulled himself together. “I need you to get a radiation exposure kit and get down to engineering as soon as possible.”

He knew Len must have had a million questions, but he just responded tightly, “Yes, Captain. I’ll be right there.”

The wait felt interminable, as the ship continued to fall and Chris could do nothing but hope Khan would be in time. After a moment, Kirk and Chekov joined him, followed almost immediately by Leonard, carrying a bulky case. Leonard’s eyes swept over all of them, sharp and worried. 

“It’s not for us, Len,” he said, not even caring that he had dropped the formal title. “Khan’s in the irradiated core compartment, trying to fix the warp core. He’ll need treatment when he’s done.”

“_Khan’s_ in there?” Leonard and Jim spoke simultaneously. Chekov cursed softly in Russian.

Suddenly a surge of power hummed through the ship and their descent began to slow. “Holy shit, he did it,” Jim breathed.

Chris was silent, not knowing if it would be in time, or if they were going to crash into the earth, dying and taking tens of thousands of civilians with them. After ten agonizing seconds, the ship’s descent stopped altogether and the Enterprise lifted upward. Chris closed his eyes in sheer relief.

Khan stumbled back out of the Jeffries tube, hit the button to close the inner hatch, and fell in a controlled collapse next to the clear bulkhead wall where Pike was standing. 

Leonard was immediately shoving his way past Kirk and Chekov. “Open it,” he demanded.

Chris shook his head. “The decontamination process isn’t complete. You’d flood the whole area with radiation.”

Leonard clenched his jaw but said nothing more. 

Chris turned to Chekov. “Get back to the bridge, ensign.” He didn’t want the kid here to see this.

After Chekov had gone, Chris turned his attention back to Khan, who looked like he was trying to speak. Pike crouched down so he could hear. “My people,” Khan said. “I want your word that they will be safe.”

Chris looked into Khan’s bleary eyes. “You have my word that your people will be safe. They’ll stay in stasis, but they’ll be safe.”

Khan nodded tiredly, and then closed his eyes, his face and body slackening into an unnatural limpness. A moment later, Chris heard the chime signaling the end of the decontamination process. 

The door to the warp core slid open, and McCoy immediately went through it, kneeling at Khan’s side. “He’s alive,” he said. “In bad shape, but alive. Help me get him to medbay.”

Chris joined Leonard so they could lift Khan between them, but no sooner had he gotten through the door than he saw Khan’s arm darting out, hitting the decontamination cycle button. The door to the warp core compartment slid shut behind him before he could move, and more quickly than he would have believed possible, Khan had his arm around Leonard’s neck, a phaser somehow having appeared from nowhere and held against Len’s temple. Khan’s eyes were glittering with madness and his mouth was stretched into an insane parody of a grin. 

Leonard and Chris were trapped in the warp core compartment with Khan, and there was no way Jim could get to them until the decontamination cycle finished.


End file.
